Facebook runs ad campaign that sort of says sorry for data misuse scandal

Facebook is running an advertising campaign that acknowledges it has had a problem with fake news and the misuse of data and goes some way to apologizing for these issues.

A one-minute ad called "Here Together" focuses on what Facebook says it was invented for — keeping up with friends — before addressing the fact that "something happened." "We had to deal with spam, clickbait, fake news and data misuse," a voiceover says.

"That's going to change," the ad promises, adding that the social network will do more to keep people safe and protect their privacy.

Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg has apologized for the data handling scandal that saw information from 87 million profiles harvested by an app, which was then shared with Cambridge Analytica.

The social network's Chief Technology Officer Mike Schroepfer apologized for the breach of users' trust in a statement given to the U.K. parliament's media committee Thursday and admitted in a hearing that Facebook did not read all the terms and conditions of the app that shared data.

Facebook also announced Thursday that it will clearly label political advertising on its site in Britain, with people who want to run ads having to go through an authorization process ahead of content being published.

The company announced quarterly earnings on Wednesday, with revenues of $11.97 billion. Ad revenues were up 50 percent year-on-year, suggesting that the data leak had little effect; however, the results were to the quarter ended March 31. The data revelations were reported by The New York Times on March 17.